The invention concerns a powder inhaler and a powder inhalation set comprised of powder inhaler and blister element.
Powder inhalers for sublingual, nasal, and inhaling delivery of solid drugs or other substances in powder form are known. They can be designed as propellant gas-free delivery devices that release an aerosol due to the inspiration process, respectively, a deep inhalation process. The energy for dispersing is obtained by the inspiration flow. In this context, the substance in powder form is contained in a storage container; special storage containers such as blisters are also known. Depending on the type of powder inhaler, the pure active ingredient is used or the active ingredient together with a carrier that is an innocuous excipient, for example, lactose or glucose for adhered active ingredient particles.
Known powder applicators or powder inhalers, depending on the design, may deliver up to three different types of powder. Such a powder inhaler is disclosed in EP 1 769 818 B1. Here, a propellant gas-free powder inhaler is used for inhaling delivery of solid drugs in powder form and enables also inhalation of a powder combination. This is achieved in that the powder inhaler comprises at least two storage containers in which different powders are stored separate from each other in several dosing units. The powders can be combined correspondingly and can be delivered through a common inhalation tube.
The powder inhaler disclosed in DE 10 2005 046 645 B3 is also provided for inhalation of two different powders and comprises also at least two storage containers for the different powders and makes it possible that they can be metered separate from each other in a dosing device and subsequently can be mixed with each other during inhalation.
The delivery even of different powders can be realized as an individual dose.
In order to improve the agglomeration degree and the emptying degree of the powder upon inhalation, the powder inhaler of DE 10 2005 046 644 B3 comprises in the inflow air channel a coil-shaped or spiral-shaped swirling device in order to swirl the air prior to supply to the powder and to obtain in this way a finer distribution of the powder in the air stream.
An inhaler for individual doses is known from DE 20 2011 103503 U1. The powder inhaler for capsules described therein comprises a blade housing and a mouthpiece housing as well as a capsule carrier and several blades. The powder inhaler disclosed therein is intended to be used without complex preparation by an untrained user. The entire inhalation process is to be simply activated by a sliding movement; for this purpose, the device described therein has only two housing parts that are movable relative to each other and, due to their displacement relative to each other, initially the insertion opening for the capsule is closed and, in this way, the capsule is retained in a bore within the inhaler. In the interior of the inhaler, the capsule is then opened by suitably designed metallic blades.
EP 2 015 812 B1 discloses a powder inhaler for simultaneous delivery of several medicaments which are present in different depressions in an individual dose blister strip. For insertion of the blister, a mouthpiece of the powder inhaler is movably attached on a strip support. On the strip support of the powder inhaler, corresponding depressions for receiving the blister depressions are formed. A cover film of the inserted blister can be pulled off when the mouthpiece is closed in that the cover film is provided with a folded-over pulling tab that is projecting from the closed powder inhaler.
While most known inhalers are comprised of a plurality of components, which makes manufacture very expensive and complex, the above-mentioned inhaler of DE 20 2011 103503 U1 is already of a constructively simple design and can be manufactured inexpensively, but requires the use of blades and provides only a short simple transport path in order to transfer the powder from the capsule by means of inhaled air into a corresponding aerosol.
Based on this prior art, it is the object of the present invention to provide an inhaler that can be produced even more simply and remains hygienically safe even for multiple uses.